Wearable tech companies hoping to dominate the self-monitoring health market may be looking over their shoulders at Lenovo at CES 2018.
During Lenovo’s event at the show, the company announced the Lenovo Vital Moto Mod, a snap-on module extension for the Moto Z smartphone. Vital is the “first connected, integrated, multi-vital sign monitoring platform you can operate through a single instrument”, according to Jim Thiede, Motorola’s Head of Product Marketing.
The Mod comes with an infrared temperature sensor, a finger clip for measuring oxygen, and an inflatable finger cuff. These three features combine to test your heart rate, respiratory rate, pulse oxygen (SpO2), body temp, and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Thiede claims no other mobile platform can deliver accurate blood pressure readings.
Stress-free tracking
After each self-checkup, you can compare your current readings to past measurements and look out for dangerous health slides. The Mod clips onto your Moto Z without covering up the back-facing camera, so can still snap photos even if the Mod is clipped on.
Lenovo’s new Vital Mod will go on sale in April for $395 (about £290 / AU$505). During the presentation, Thiede stressed how expensive and time-consuming it can be to track all of these different health statistics with five different biomonitors, so they’re counting on consumers being willing to shell out big bucks for the convenience of a one-stop platform.
Lenovo will be showing off the new Mod on the CES show floor. In all of TechRadar’s health and wearables coverage, we’ve seen plenty of heart rate monitors, but never anything as compact and convenient as this. We’re looking forward to seeing just how accurate their finger-sized blood pressure monitor is for ourselves.
That's Mod all
Lenovo also revealed the Livermorium Slider Keyboard Moto Mod, for those Moto Z users who demand QWERTY typing, tactile feedback and backlit keys. The Livermorium essentially turns your Moto Z into a side-slider with a five-row QWERTY keyboard and the ability to tilt your phone from 0 to 60 degrees.
Livermorium was the grand prize winner of the Transform the Smartphone Indiegogo challenge, where 50 indie devs launched crowdfunded campaigns for their own Moto Mod designs.
Thiede launched Lenovo's newest campaign during the CES event: the company will select 50 new ideas for Mods and send winning developers a Moto Z and a Mod developer kit.
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